Since we were here last two things have happened.
Well, actually sort of three; the Olympic soccer group stage has begun in France.
The men’s U-23 tournament today (sorry, Morocco – you were hard done by. Fifteen minutes, my fuzzy butt…) and the full women’s sides tomorrow, so the Thorns involved will start their own investigation to find…
The whole Olympics thing always seems weird to me just because it’s a FIFA’s dream come true; a World Cup every two years. And it draws, which has always been my skeptical response to the international outfit’s brazen money grab – who the hell wants a World Cup every other year?
Apparently lots of people, so you go for the gold, FIFA. I’ll admit to watching tomorrow to see if Barbara Banda can do Banda things for her country, too.
Update 7/25: Just watched Japan-Spain and…holy Hell is Spain terrifying.
Japan is a good side, and La Furia Roja made them look like hackers. The scoreline is ridiculously kind to the Nadeshiko, who were thoroughly outpossessed, outshot, and outplayed. It was women against girls, and if I was an opposing coach watching that I’d get very little sleep tonight.
Of course they could have a bad day in the knockouts, or lose a PK lottery. But it’s hard to see how this isn’t Spain’s tournament to lose.
Whilst all this national tubthumping is going on back here we had some news and a sort-of match.
The news was that Rob Gale was the final choice of the Thorns’ “world-wide” coaching search, which is kind of the most Ken and Barbie thing I can think of; the club searched high and low, near and far, all across the whole wide world…and found love right here at home, with the Boy Next Door.
Or at least the club says they searched everywhere.
Not that I’m cynical or anything, but it’s not like we had Casey Stoney or Mauricio Pochettino sightings here during this hunt. Or leaks of discussions with shadowy agents from La Liga, or meetings with shinobi from the WE League.
I’d say more about this, but our former podcast pundit-savant Richard Hamje has already said everything that needed to be said in his comment on the Stumptown post about this:
“There is only one way this ends well. Gale demands top-level signings in the summer. He gets them and the Thorns are in the final. Then in the winter Gales remakes a big chunk of the team. He ends up staying at the club for many years.
There are a near-infinity of ways this ends badly. The Thorns make no summer signings. We don’t make the playoffs. Gale is fired and we start over for the fourth time in three years. No reputable coach wants to work for a bunch of flakes like our FO, so Loudon or Vitas gets the job and the cycle repeats.
As others have pointed out, there was literally NO reason to make this announcement today. If he becomes head coach in November, it’s the exact same as giving him a new sign on the door today. But if we waited until November, maybe we could have found somebody actually qualified to do the job in the interim. That option is gone now.
A sad day.”
Well, we’re kind of stuck with Ken now. We’ll see if things change around here now that the temp tag is off his bumper.
The other thing was…
…a “Summer Cup” match against the delightfully-named “Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente” of Club Tijuana in Liga MX Feminil.
(Even better than their official name, this club plays on the doggie mascot by calling themselves “Perras Malas”, which translates more-or-less as “Bad Bitches”.)
Wellllll…
The Xolos were bad alright.
Their backline was a black hole of chaos, no more able to track Thorns runners than a bloodhound with a stuffy nose. A horrific keeper error gifted Sinc an easy chip for the matchwinner in the fourth minute. Olivia Wade-Katoa scored fourteen minutes later. After the break Izzy D’Aquila, Ana Dias, and Marisa Sheva scored, too.
It was like Oprah Soccer; “You get a goal and you get a goal and you get a goal…”
Fun? Oh, sure. Nothing at stake, no stress, everyone (except the poor Xolos…) had a lovely kickabout and ran off happy.
Here’s the thing, though.
I frankly expected Ken to try and play Smith hero-ball without Smith. He didn’t, and we saw a free flow and creativity we haven’t seen a lot of. We saw good movement, passing, and intelligent coordination.
Yeah, okay, Tijuana was ass; try that against full-strength Orlando. I get it.
But…baby steps, maybe? Maybe now that he’s a full-time employee Coach Ken is ready to let his Inner Tactical Genius out?
Let’s see what happens in Utah this coming weekend.
Plus it was fun to see Sinc and Kling party like it was 2016. They’re past the time they can run with the young wolves. But give them some little dogs to chase? It’s Bark in the Park.
So those were things that happened.
Any thoughts?
- Thorns FC: Bad to worse - September 3, 2024
- Thorns FC: Easy to be hard - August 27, 2024
- Olympic Break 5: Okay, Break’s Over - August 16, 2024
I liked the change from the 4-3-3 to the 3-4-3 for tis game, and potentially the break. It helps get the better players that we have on the field, and seems to limit the downsides of having players like Kling on the field by allowing her to play up more. The downside to the formation is that it just doesn’t work with the full team unless we are looking at injuries/suspensions in the midfield. The plus to watching it is that Gale is showing formational flexibility that we haven’t seen in a while. The caution to it is that Tijuana was a bad team and our players were simply at a higher talent level, which questions how it would work against a better team. But it does add a new look that could work depending on the circumstance.
Yeah, the problem is that bad opponents make you look like Barca. I’ll be interested to see how the Replacements look against Utah and Seattle, but both those sides suck ass, too, so…
And you’re also right that this doesn’t solve the “who goes where” issues when we have the full side.
LOL, no kidding. But the opportunity for young players like OWK, McKenzie and even Reyes is that they can just play and get a feel for what they can do. There is value to that.
As for the full side, it could work depending on player availability. We were missing Coffey and Moultre just a few games ago, and this formation would help to solve that problem. I wouldn’t want to have to run it for any extended period of time with who we have, but its an option. If Gale can bring flexibility to the unit I think it could be a good sign.
Roster note: Nally waived.
I missed the game Sunday because i was out of town, keeping intact my string of always managing to miss one home game per season. Looked from the highlights as though it was light-hearted fun for the home side and crowd.
The Berhalter Variation head coaching decision left me as unimpressed as the next cynic. I suspect the “worldwide search” amounted to KK walking pregame ovals at Providence Park and looking for coaches—“I see you, Mark Parsons! But I’m not waving at you!”—and maaaaybe sending a couple emails. Guess we all wait and see how far this apple rolls from the tree, or some other baffling metaphor.
Hope the departing players (Bye, Meghan!) land well. And the remaining incoming players improve the club immediately, rather than…. eventually.
Nally wasn’t exactly a shock. I’m gonna bet one of the keepers is going, too.
And I think Richard got it exactly right; 1) there was no need to do this now, and 2) there’s a jillion ways this goes wrong and one hope it goes right. Those are piss-poor odds.
Probably at least one keeper? And I also agree with Richard’s assessment. Not gonna pretend the decision makes sense.